Finding Aids

 

Using these Materials

Please contact the Center of Southwest Studies Archives Manager at archives@fortlewis.edu for more information about reproductions and accessing the collection.

 

Access Restrictions: There are no access restrictions on the use of this collection. The collection is non-circulating but open to the public for use in the Delaney Southwest Research Library at the Center of Southwest Studies.

 

Reproduction and Copyright: Materials held by the Center may be protected under U.S. and international copyright laws. Reproduction does not constitute a transfer of copyright or publication rights. Researchers are solely responsible for complying with copyright law and for obtaining any necessary permissions for reproduction or publication. The Center assumes no liability for unauthorized use of materials.

 

Related Materials:

collection number	collection title
B 002	Theodore Hetzel book collection (merged into the general collection)
M 121	Theodore Hetzel papers
P 003	Theodore Hetzel photograph collection
P 023	Theodore Hetzel slide collection
U 005	Theodore Hetzel audiotape collection
C 007	USGS topographic maps of New York, from the Hetzel collection

 

Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Collection Title], [Collection Number], Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado.

 

 

Collection Description

Historical/Biographical Note: These papers relate to Theodore B. Hetzel's his work with the Indian Rights Association, a humanitarian group dedicated to influencing federal Indian policy.  As his daughter Janet Henderson wrote to the Center's director in 1991, "Although he was trained as an engineer, he was always interested in people, especially those who were not being treated fairly.  He was fascinated by Quaker contact with American Indians throughout history... [and] was always anxious to learn from the American Indians."  A prominent Indian rights activist, Hetzel also served as chair of The American Friends Service Committee's Committee on the American Indian.  He testified before Congress on such issues as the return of sacred Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo.  Mr. Hetzel died in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania on May 27, 1990 at the age of 83.

Professor Hetzel was born in Germantown (outside Philadelphia), and lived most of his life in Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania.  He attended Westtown School and Haverford College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1928.  He completed graduate studies in mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, the Technical University of Munich (Germany), and Penn State University.  He returned to Haverford College in 1936 as a member of the faculty and later chair of the Department of Engineering.

Throughout the years, Dr. Hetzel lectured widely on contemporary Native American affairs, and (as an accomplished photographer) documented many aspects of contemporary American Indian life across North America.  As he traveled throughout Indian Country, from Florida to Alaska, he was "facilitating communication between disparate, sometimes uncooperative groups, making contacts, relaying messages and setting up conferences" (source: an undated issue of Indian Truth, page 5).  His interest in American Indian policy reform began as a director of American Friends Service Committee (Quaker) (AFSC) summer work camps for high school and college-age students.  He served on the Indian committees of the AFSC and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.  In 1955, the Indian Rights Association asked him to join its board of directors.  In 1969 the Association appointed him as its executive director and editor of its publication, Indian Truth.  In 1971 he was named general secretary.  He ran the Indian Rights Association office in Philadelphia virtually single-handedly for a few years.  When he retired from Haverford College in 1972, the college granted him its Haverford Award in recognition of his teaching and humanitarian service. 

Each summer during the middle decades of the 20th century, Hetzel visited Native American communities around the United States, as a representative of the Indian Rights Association and other groups advocating for Native American rights.  All the while, he was taking pictures, along with writing field reports.  His photos were used in issues of the IRA's periodical, Indian Truth, for more than 20 years.   He wrote, "When we traveled, (my wife) Becky and I would go to the agency and ask for an interview, to talk with the tribal chairman, if he'll talk to us, or whoever's available ... I had a card with my name, address and Indian Rights Association on it, and it made a whale of a difference.  Even the people who couldn't read, I mean, their eyes weren't even good enough to read . . . but they put it in their pocket, and it was a record of who I was.  I was responsible to them, in a sense.  And Becky was helpful, particularly if I was taking pictures, she'd be keeping the conversation alive.  Usually, we got to see whoever we asked for.  They seemed open to us.  The Indian Rights Association was a good name."  (quoted in an issue of Indian Truth).

Hetzel's work on behalf of the Papago Indians [now known as the Tohono O'odham] was instrumental in their securing the mineral rights for their reservation, and his photographs were effective in obtaining improved health and sanitation facilities for American Indians.  In 1961, he traveled throughout Alaska urging tribal leaders to seek title to their aboriginal lands.  He also worked extensively on behalf of the Seneca Indians of New York and Pennsylvania to prevent the flooding of their tribal lands by the Kinzua Dam, and when those efforts were unsuccessful, he worked to obtain funding to relocate the reservation.  Along with Myra Ellen Jenkins (former State Historian of New Mexico, whose papers are adjacent to the Hetzel papers at the Center of Southwest Studies), Hetzel was an advocate for the Taos Pueblo in obtaining the return of Blue Lake, which Native American regard as sacred.  He frequently testified before Congressional committees on matters relating to the Federal budget for Indian affairs and Indian health care, and in recognition for these efforts he was formally adopted as a member of the Seneca and Tuscarora Tribes.

Placement of the Hetzel materials at the Center of Southwest Studies is appropriate because of Hetzel's lifelong interest in liberal arts education (he taught mechanical engineering at Haverford College) and because of the Native American focus of the collection.  Fort Lewis College is one of two institutions of higher education in the U.S. which qualified Native Americans can attend tuition-free.  Fort Lewis College emphasizes undergraduate use of primary materials, and a significant volume of student research projects focus on Native American topics.

 

Scope & Contents: This collection consists of printed materials and other papers concerning Native Americans. 

 

Arrangement: Project staff began the processing of these papers by producing an abstract of thirty field notebooks maintained by Theodore Hetzel, because those notebooks, which are primarily travel journals, are a basic tool for accessing the subjects of his papers and the photographs he took. The series groupings are numbered consecutively.  Series are organized from highest hierarchical level to lowest; from most general to most specific.  Items within each series are arranged chronologically, unless noted otherwise.

 

Acquisition Information: Over a period from 1990 to 1992, the Hetzel Collection was donated by Hetzel's widow, Rebecca Wills Hetzel, a resident of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, with the gracious assistance and cooperation of her children, one of whom lives close to the Fort Lewis College campus.  The Center has purchased a microfilm copy of the Indian Rights Association Papers and also has many selected Bureau of Indian Affairs federal records on microfilm which complement the Hetzel materials.

 

Processing Information: Center of Southwest Studies student archival assistant Debra Lehl produced the abstract of Dr. Hetzel's notebooks in September-December 2001, and processed the collection in March-April of 2002.  Student archival assistant Virginia Collins produced the abstract of the 1958 Tucson workcamp notebooks in October 2006.  The collection inventory and web mastering were by Todd Ellison, C. A.

 

Subjects:

Hetzel, Theodore
Hetzel family
Indian Rights Association
Indians of North America--Government relations
Federal-Indian trust relationship
Tribal government--United States
Tribes--United States